I urge you to help enforce the grouper ban of Florida that stops commercial fisherman from over fishing this species by closing the commercial season until January 2005. I would also like o see max limits put on this species and any other commercially fished species. Face it if you have a closed commercial season on grouper all other commercially available species will be pressure fished to make up for the revenues lost by the commercial boats. I would also like to see and support as a recreational fisherman stricter bag limits per species especially on grouper and snapper populations. There is no reason for a person to be able to keep 5 grouper per day. That is a ridiculous limit that will also over fish the already stressed grouper population. I catch fish frequently ad as a responsible angler I keep a couple of two person meals worth of fish (1 legal grouper is 3 meals for my wife and I, 2 legal snapper is 3 meals). As a concerned fisherman I feel that I should be a steward of our environment and use it responsibly, unfortunately there are many anglers fishing today that need the government to step in and tell them what is conscionable and reasonable, that is all I am asking for. I understand the commercial industry is going to lose income because of this decision, perhaps there is some subsidizing that can be done like we do for farmers that have a bad crop year, but as a recreational angler I spend a lot of my income feeding the commercial market to buy equipment, supply my boat and spend my time to go out and be a part of nature. If I had to charge per plate for my fresh fish nobody would be buying it. I understand that restaurants need to provide the customer demand or they go out of business, but what is wrong with charging more for a meal because the fish cannot be supplied in the demand quantity. The price that a fisherman can get for his catch would go up so he would make the same income on less fish (helping to balance out the fish population) and those people who wanted a fresh fish dinner would still have access to it at about the same price that I spend to catch my own dinner. I think that would be a reasonable start to fix the long term problems we face in today’s oceans mainly the Gulf of Mexico and Florida’s coastline. I want nothing more than for my great, great niece and you great, great grandson to be able to enjoy the same fresh finned table fare that we do today and will help in anyway I can. I urge you to work as hard as I do to furthering this vision.Thank youRobert Fisher, bobmartyfisher2003@yahoo.com